sparks fly
by ohwhatsherface
Summary: AU. SasuSaku. Maybe she's just too drunk or maybe she just likes him that much. Either way, when they hold hands, sparks fly. Literally.


**Title:** sparks fly  
**Author:** ohwhatsherface  
**Warnings:** college-AU, drinking, swearing, pointless fluff  
**Note:** I'm Canadian, so to all you other Canadians, I hope you all had a super awesome long weekend. Also, you know what's fun? Sticking cherry bombs in watermelons. Everyone should try that.

* * *

Sakura considered the repercussions of simply tossing her empty beer bottle with a grimace on her face. She was about ten feet above the ground and there was sand below her. Surely the sand, coarse as it may be, would help the glass bottle's fall. In her drunken state of mind, she opted to simply remain seated with the bottle in her hands. Sighing, she resigned herself to her fate.

"I'm going to die here," she mumbled to herself.

She sat on a little tube meant for children to be crawling _inside_ of, connecting to parts of the little jungle gym she and her friends were watching their fireworks from. There weren't any "good" spots on other parts of the jungle gym so she decided the best course of action would be to _make_ a good spot.

The idea seemed so much better ten minutes ago.

Ino was currently nagging Naruto and Kiba to give her a chance to light one of their Konoha Day fireworks but they didn't trust her to run away fast enough with her silly four-inch wedge sandals. Sakura couldn't help but snort at their banter. Ino was throwing a fit but Naruto and Kiba, despite their usual playful behaviour, were still protective of her. Ino would live for another day. Sakura, however, was going to die perched atop some blue tube at the age of twenty with no absolutely no accomplishments under her belt.

"God dammit," she muttered, shifting ever so slightly. She succeeded in turning sideways so that she was now straddling the tube, but all the movement also did something for her stomach and successfully knocked over the empty bottle of beer she had set down beside her.

"Need some help?"

Sakura looked up and blinked owlishly at Sasuke. He was leaning against a pole with a smirk on his face, clearly taking some amusement out of her imminent death.

"Huh?" she replied. Sakura snorted and shook her head. "No, I'm fine," she told him with a grin.

Sasuke only raised an eyebrow. "But you were so sure that you'd die there."

Sakura pouted. "Okay, I might need _some_ help."

He set his drink down and offered her his hand. With a blush that he couldn't see since it was so dark outside, Sakura took it.

"Are you going to let me fall?" she mumbled, squeezing his hand more than necessary when he began to pull her forward.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "I'm holding onto you. How can I let you fall?"

He began to give her orders on how to maneuver herself so that she could safely climb back onto the parts of the jungle gym _meant_ to be stood on but Sakura was having none of it. She didn't think she was being difficult, but even pretty much drunk out of her mind she could tell that Sasuke's steps lacked logic and didn't consider her lack of upper body strength.

With one hand still in his, Sakura slumped back into her position of straddling the tube and sighed. "It's okay, Sasuke. Go on without me."

"Don't be dumb," Sasuke said, pulling on her arm. "And don't lean to the side like that." The tube was round and given her current inebriation, she was quite likely to slip off.

"I'm not dumb. _You're_ dumb. Your get-off-the-tube ideas are dumb—"

She stopped when Ino let out a loud squeal of excitement. Both Sasuke and Sakura looked to the spot they were launching the fireworks from, about twelve feet away from the jungle gym. Naruto was holding Ino's sandals by the straps as Kiba pointed the fuse out to Ino. When she nodded and told him she could light it just fine, he lodged it into the sand and handed Ino the lighter.

"Fire in the hole!" Ino shouted as she ran away from the firework she just lit.

Sakura chose to watch the fireworks instead of getting back onto safer ground, marvelling at the yellow that high into the night sky before exploding into strands of pink and purple and a random burst of green. Sakura giggled at the sight of Ino, Naruto, and Kiba – her three loudest friends – now all finally silent and watching the fireworks together. Wondering what Sasuke thought of the pretty colours, Sakura looked to her left and found his gaze not trained on the lights, but on their still-joined hands. A little embarrassed, Sakura couldn't help but accidentally squeeze his hand (in lieu of clenching a fist), bringing his eyes up to her face.

Part of her wanted to blush, but Sakura was done with being the shy girl around Sasuke. She smiled at him instead and loosened her grip enough so that he'd be comfortable, but so that he'd also know she had no plan on letting go of him.

"You're…" Sakura laughed softly under her breath and shook her head. She leaned closer to him or he moved closer to her. "I think you're just so awesome, Sasuke. Like, everything about you is great. When I talk to you, I'm always smiling. When you're around, everything just gets _better_," Sakura rambled, not giving the slightest of cares that he might think she was crazy. She brought her free hand to his face and ran her finger along his jaw before stopping at his nose and poking him with a "boop!" much to his annoyance. When her giggles died down, Sakura flattened her palm against his cheek and grinned. "You're the greatest, Sasuke."

He rolled his eyes but Sakura could see the traces of smile on his lips. "And _you're_ drunk, Sakura."

She immediately frowned at his dismissal.

There's was an odd relationship caught between really good friends and some newbie couple. Sakura liked him. Sakura liked him a lot. Sakura was so disgustingly not even remotely subtle about her feelings about Sasuke. Sasuke, on the other hand, despite being the one to start the many, many late night conversations via text messages, the couple of random drunken make out sessions, and, clearly, the few bouts of hand-holding, was standing somewhere between being the jerk simply leading Sakura on and the guy who really, really cared about her and wanted something nice to start. He was so confusing, but at that point, Sakura was so, so pathetically possibly in love that she took what she could get.

But he caught her pout. Sasuke squeezed her hand in apology and gave her a tug.

"Want to light one of the roman candles together?" he asked with a smirk.

Sakura stared at him for a moment before abruptly pulling her hand away. She didn't get to see his expression at the lack of contact as she was too busy maneuvering herself to get back onto the jungle gym. When she landed with a small thump beside Sasuke, she grinned up at him and grabbed his hand once again.

"Of _course_ I want to light one of the roman candles together."

They took the slides down to the sand, deeming them the safest route, and pulled a roman candle out of their box of goodies. With one hand each at the base of the firework, Sasuke let her be the one to light it at the top. They raised their arms to direct the firework to the night sky and watched, mesmerized, as they let the sparks fly.

* * *

_fin_.


End file.
